During the seventeenth century the Austrian Empire engaged in just 12 wars, but these spanned 77 years, for an average of 6.4 years per war.

Venice probably holds the world's record for immunity from foreign occupation, having not felt the tread of foreign troops until the French occupied it in 1797, some 1350 years after its foundation, and it is probably the only Old World city never to have suffered a sack, though Bonaparte did subject it to some organized looting.

During the Second World War the German Army had to refill each officer slot an average of 9.2 times.

Elizabethan sea dogs Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins both believed that the English seaman’s diet would be greatly improved by changing their rations to include macaroni.

During the Battle of Paschendael (July 31- November 6, 1917) the British Army incurred 370,000 casualties and expended 4,283,550 shells to secure 45 square miles of water-soaked Belgian countryside, a cost of 8,222 men and 95,190 shells per square mile, or 83 men and 961.5 shells per square mile per day.

The first uniforms issued to the WACs during Wolrd War II, fitted rather poorly, probably because Quartermaster Corps designers used male dress dummies.

During the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the Royal Navy lost 1,512 men killed in action, and 133,708 to disease, two-thirds of whom perished from scurvy.